Rapid Eye Movement
by StarChylde
Summary: Really short What if Wolfwood fanfic


Disclaimer: Trigun doesn't belong to me, neither do the characters. (Thank heaven for that-- the collective cost of the damages these people ring up would bankrupt Bill Gates)

Author's note: Okay, so I woke up one morning and this story had magically appeared on my computer. I'm assuming that I wrote it at three o'clock the night before when I couldn't sleep even though I was so tired I was practically incoherent. Anyway, it's a Wolfwood reflection fic-- surprisingly un-angsty for the content of the story. It may contain spoilers depending on what your idea of a spoiler is. I didn't think it gave anything away, but my friend seemed to think so, so read at your own risk.

And now:

* * *

RAPID EYE MOVEMENT

He guessed it was a dream almost immediately. The sky was too blue and the grass was greener than any _he_ had ever seen. It was one of those strange dreams where you know you're dreaming but can't seem to wake up. Not that he minded. It was a pleasant, restful dream, and if he had to pick somewhere to spend his time, this wasn't that bad choice. He lay back on the grass and stared up at the blue sky quietly. Amazingly, the more he watched the clouds, the farther his sight reached, until he was viewing the stars through the wispy afternoon clouds. Though that would have unnerved him in real life, since it was a dream he wasn't too bothered.

And since it _was_ a dream, he wasn't too surprised to notice that he wasn't alone. A sense unique to the dreamscape he had created alerted him to her presence. Slowly, fighting the overwhelming lethargy of a warm summer evening, he turned to face her.

She was also gazing at the sky, hands tucked behind her head and one leg crossed over the other, mirroring his position. Her dark hair swirled around her shoulders and moved slightly in a breeze he couldn't feel. They sat there like that for a few moments before she turned towards him. Her eyes were wide and bright, but because they seemed to have the uncanny ability to refract the sunlight, he couldn't tell what color the irises were. Eyes like that, he reflected, could take your soul, turn it inside out, and bare it for the whole world to see. In real life, eyes like that would have bothered him; but since it was a dream he didn't mind baring his soul. After all, who would see it but himself?

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked, in an ageless voice that echoed playfully across the field. "It's peaceful, quiet-- you could sleep forever."

"I don't want to sleep forever." he found himself answering quite cheerfully. "Life would be awfully boring."

She smiled. "And yet... This is the life you think you want to live eventually, isn't it?"

"Eventually," he agreed, turning back to cloudgazing. "After I'm old and gray and all the children have grown up."

There was a silence. "The children are very special to you, aren't they?"

_Nick-chan...!!!_ Smiling faces crowded his thoughts. "You should already know that."

The girl pushed herself up on one elbow, regarding him thoughtfully. "If you went back now, you would live a long life. You could watch them grow older, get married, have children, have a family of your own..."

"I know."

She blinked her strange eyes at him and began again. "Do you?" she asked, her playful tone slipping away into seriousness. "If you continue to live as you have been, you will die young and your death will be violent."

"Everyone's got to die someday." he answered nonchalantly. Somewhere in the back of his mind, his consciousness squirmed at that line of thinking. But after all, this was only a dream. 

"That's true." she conceded, picking at a blade of grass. "But I'm not talking about someday. I'm not talking about ten years from now, or five, or even two. Death is not far from your door."

"I know." he said again. _I do?_ his conscious mind questioned in alarm. But he did know, even though he couldn't explain how. 

"If you go back, the children will never have to mourn your passing."

Wolfwood was silent. He focused his attention on a single white flower poking cautiously up through the green blades all around it and let his mind wander. He was reminded of everything that had happened to him lately, and how his view of the world had been changed. Three faces passed through his head, and a set of bright sky-blue eyes lingered and seemed to stare at him from the yellowy center of the blossom. Those eyes were much different from the ones that observed him quietly now; the strange ones that reflected the sun. This woman next to him had seen too much; her eyes were full of experience and understanding. But the wisdom was the same between the two. The instinctive empathy that drew him in against his will was still there, overpowering and enigmatic and endearing all the same.

"The children won't ask questions if you go back." she said softly. Wolfwood smiled-- a wry, twisted smile, but a genuine one none the less.

"I can't. I have people to watch out for here." He patted at his chest pocket for a cigarette and discovered that in this dream he apparently didn't smoke. The girl smiled at his annoyance.

"They would understand, if you left because of the children." Somehow, the voice had changed. Instead of being soothing and convincing, it was soft and blunt. As if she was no longer trying to convince him to do anything, but rather playing the devil's advocate.

_Love and Peace!! _Vash's obnoxiously happy face flashed across his mind. Of course that hippie-drawback pacifist gunslinger would understand. That wasn't the point. 

"You said if I went back home that I would live a long life." He commented, getting to his feet. "But would it be a happy one?"

The girl also stood. "You should already know that."

He nodded. "I couldn't look at myself in the mirror every morning if I had walked out on something I believe. I wouldn't be able to teach those kids anything. I don't want them to lose faith in me."

She smiled again, wistfully. "Then your decision is made."

"I'm not a martyr." Wolfwood answered, irritated with himself. "I'll probably die begging for more time."

She cocked her head to the side in amusement. "It's not as selfish as it seems." She commented cryptically and then turned, walking slowly away. Wolfwood got the distinct impression that his dream was about to end.

"Hey, Angel..." he called to her back, and she paused. 

"Angel?"

"Aren't you some sort of divine messenger God sent to help me sort out my life?" 

"Maybe not divine." she glanced back over her shoulder. "My name is Rem."

"Rem..." he corrected himself, "Can I ask a favor?"

"You may ask it." _But I can't promise anything_. She didn't have to finish the thought. He understood.

"Watch over those kids for me, will you?"

Rem gazed at him coolly for a moment with her odd mirrorlike eyes before a brilliant smile lit her face. "You're a good man, Nicholas Wolfwood."

"Spare me that." he said shortly. And then, "They're good kids. Make sure they stay out of trouble."

"I'll do what I can." she said, bowing slightly as a breeze blew his short hair into his eyes...

...And then Wolfwood found himself out on the roof of the inn, where he had fallen asleep. He could hear Meryl's voice just below him, talking to the innkeeper in the clipped tone that meant they were discussing payment for that evening's stay. He smiled slightly, tucking his arms behind his head and crossing one leg over the other. That no-nonsense, bossy voice would be planted in his soul until the end of time. The clouds floated lazily along, little fluffy shapes in a crystalline sky.

"Here you are, Mr. Priest!" a chirpy voice said suddenly from just below him. Wolfwood sat up instantly, nearly sending himself tumbling off the roof. "You really shouldn't be sleeping up there." Milly continued in her usual oblivious manner, coming out onto the balcony beside her window. "What if you had a nightmare and rolled off the roof and broke your neck?"

Wolfwood smothered the urge to remind her that her sudden appearance was what had almost caused him a nasty fall. He gazed at her smiling face for a moment, drinking in every feature so he wouldn't regret it later.

"Mr. Priest? Is something wrong?"

There it was. That flash of empathic wisdom that Rem had reminded him of. Why did all of them have that same look? Vash, Milly, even Meryl sometimes-- what was it they had that he didn't? 

"Mr. Priest? Are you sick? Do you need a doctor? Or a chiropractor? That cross must be awfully heavy..."

Wolfwood smiled his normal, cynical smile and gently eased his way down onto the balcony. "Nothing's wrong." he reassured her. "Let's see if we can find Vash and go get some dinner, okay?"

"Let's go somewhere with pudding!" Milly suggested as she disappeared into the shadow of the room. Still smiling, Wolfwood reached out to close the balcony doors, looking up at the sky as he did so.

And if he thought it was strange that he could see the night's first stars through the wispy evening clouds, his expression didn't show it. It had only been a dream, after all.

* * *

End note: I didn't mean this to give anyone the idea that Wolfwood thought he was dreaming for the rest of the series (even if the last paragraph makes it sound that way). I wanted it to be a story about a priest reaffirming his faith in God and in his principles. Grand scheming for a three-page fic, I know. Ah, well, just as long as no one thinks he was sleepwalking.

And if you're wondering why I named the story what I did, it's because the acronym for the scientific term rapid-eye movement is REM; i.e. Rem, as in Saverem. It's kind of a weird coincidence that she only shows up in dreams.


End file.
